A good stream of passive income to add to your portfolio is user-generated content websites that I talked about In my previous post. When set up properly, they can be easy to run, and profitable without much work on your part.

Today I want to share with you a way to come up with ideas to run your own user-generated content website. When you think of user-generated content websites, think of online community. Is there an obscure group of people that you know who are under-served? A particular interest or hobby that you or someone you know may have? A particular subject matter that you or someone you know are passionate about?

Notice that I didn’t ask just about you, but also someone you may know, because you are going to set up a website to serve a certain group of people, of which you may not have any knowledge or interest in what they do.

Still have no idea? Let’s pull up my favorite free keyword research tool Wordtracker and search for “forum.” Forums are great for an online community type of website and a great tool to bring together a group of people who share the same interest.

Now work down the list (I prefer to go from bottom to top) and take note of the most obscure forum niches. Also make sure that it has good search volume and low competition number (click on the bar graph next to each keyword to see this information):

“knife forums” will get you ~73 visitors per day (If you can get your website rank #1 in Google for that keyword), and has only 19,200 webpages out there competing against you if you were to set up a site for knife forums. If you have never done any SEO, 19,200 competing webpages may sound like a whole lot, but it really isn’t, if you optimize both on-page and off-page factors.

So, you could set up a forum that talks about knife and bring all knife enthusiasts to your website. If you Google “knife forums” then you will see that there is already a knife forum website (knifeforums.com) and it’s ranking #1. Ok, we can either choose to compete, or narrow it down even further (maybe set up a knife forum for a very specific type of knife, like “rambo knife” <- do a keyword research on “knife“). Sure, we are eating a very small crumb of the whole bread, but eventually we can eat the whole bread this way. Once you set up a forum for a specific type of knife, you can expand your forum to a second type of knife and leverage off the existing forum members you already have captured.

Online forum is just one example of user-generated content website that you can set up and run. You can also set up free classified websites that allow people to exchange/buy & sell certain type of goods (ie. video games). Are there sites like that out there already? Sure there is! But using the niche-down principal, you have just suddenly gain competitiveness in the market.

So, start thinking what type of service you can provide to people - people who are in particular interest groups (religion, politics, weight-loss, make money). A good to go about this is to go to social networking websites such as myspace, facebook, and browse through the groups - that should give you plenty of ideas to spin off and do keyword research on.

Once you have determined the site that you want to set up, go into your hosting’s cPanel and look for the Fantastisco icon which will give you a plethora of scripts that you can install and have an instant website set up for you (forums, blogs). Hotscripts.com also gives you a variety of free scripts that you can run your website off (classified ads script).

Have fun!

I received the following email from Ken McCarthy who runs the systems seminar which he talked about some of the biggest myths about making money that I thought I’d share with you.

I find them to be very true, and I especially like Myth #1.  This is not to say that you will always have to work hard, but you do need to do your share of planting a tree before you can enjoy the shade.

==== reprinted with permission ====

Steve

This summer I find myself working harder than I have in a long time.

And you know what?

That’s a good thing.

If this confuses you, you should read a book called “The Millionaire Next Door.”

It explodes a lot of the biggest myths about m’oney making.

Myths that quite frankly, a lot of people are working overtime trying to sell you because they want you to spend without thinking.

======================================
Myth #1: Millionaires don’t work hard
======================================

I know many, many people who’ve become
financially successful starting from scratch.

Folks who’ve elevated themselves from zero to millionaire and multi-millionaire status.

And they all share one thing in common…

They work much, much harder than the
“average” and “sub-average” person.

I know this flies in the face of the guru fantasy guys, but sorry, it’s reality.

The good news is if you think you must being doing something “wrong” because you work so hard, guess what?

You’re on the right track.

===========================================
Myth #2: Millionaires spend lots of money on toys and other indulgences.
===========================================

Yes, the news media loves to shower attention on big spenders. After all, extravagant people make for good stories.

The gurus like to talk about their expensive cars,  their expensive vacations, their over-sized homes.

They’re idiots.

I’ve met many people who could buy and sell the average Internet guru hot shot tens times over and most of these self-made folks are militant about living normal, low key lives.

Why?

They’re more interested in building their net worth than building their overhead.

(Read that sentence again. It may be the most succinct and powerful financial advice you’ll ever get.)

====================================================
Myth #3: Millionaires are all about the “lifestyle.”
They know the best clubs, the best vacation spots, the best cars, the best of everything ====================================================

Financially successful people are all about being effective in their marketplaces.

They could care less about *appearing*
wealthy. They’re far more interested in
*being* wealthy.

They’re constantly on the look out for opportunity.
They’re always seeking ways to be more productive, to make their offerings better, to reach new markets.

They make a game out of it.

When you’re in the right market and you enjoy what you’re doing, it’s fun.

“Normal” people want to take it easy. They dream about retiring early. About getting something for nothing.
That’s the formula for getting nowhere.

There are two kinds of people in the world when it comes to wealth building…

People who are production minded and people who are consumption minded.

When people who are consumption minded
get a windfall, their first thought is to how to spend it.

When production minded people get a
windfall, they put it aside and get back to work. They try to figure out how to take the win and leverage it to go even further.

That’s the mind set of the entrepreneur.

And when you live this way, you’ll find you have the money of anything you really need or really want to do.

“The Millionaire Next Door” is a great book and it will help you get your head screwed on right about money and how it’s really made and accumulated.

*** Opportunities for Internet marketers

This summer I’m working hard on new ways to bring more people to the Internet marketing world the right way.

Three things for you to check out:

— The System Intensive in London

If you live in the UK or Europe, or can otherwise get to London easily, and you want to learn how to use Internet marketing and direct marketing to build real, solid wealth, I be offering a unique training called the System Intensive this fall in London.

More details are available here:

http://www.SystemIntensive.com/uk

— The System Boot Camp in Chicago

The annual System Seminar is where people with six, seven and even eight figure a year businesses go to get new ideas and inspiration on how to take their businesses even further.

But what if you’re just getting started or you’re still trying to make your first big breakthrough in Internet marketing?

Where can you go?

It’s been seven years since I offered a
course especially for beginners and
intermediate Internet marketers.

This fall, I’m offering a brand new
one that includes all the big changes
that have taken place in Internet marketing in the last seven years.

I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to offer another training like this in a live setting…so if you want to get the training that has launched more Internet marketing success stories than practically all the other seminars out there put together…
check this out.

More details are available here:

http://www.SmartBeginners.com/bootcamp

—- The Virtual System Seminar

Until now, the only way to access the
System Seminar training has been to get on a plane and come to Chicago.

Not only has the tuition gone up steadily every year since we started, but so have transportation costs and it looks like they’ll be even higher next year.

For years, people have been asking me to make the System Seminar available remotely.

This is the year we’re going to do it.

For people who know a great opportunity
when they see one and don’t need a big
song and dance, we have an amazing deal
for smart early birds.

More details are available here:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/2008/cds/

However you decide to use your summer…
whether to work or play, or do some of both, I hope it’s a great one for you.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on school, but summer still represents freedom to me and that, ultimately, is what smart entrepreneurs are working for.

Best,

Ken

P.S. This would be a very smart way to make your summer highly productive:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/2008/cds/
Ken McCarthy
The System Seminar

———————————————————
* The System Seminar  March 27 - 29, 2009 The annual gathering of *serious* Internet entrepreneurs http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com

* London UK - System Intensive November 15 & 16, 2008

* Home study solutions for Internet entrepreneurs http://www.KensCatalog.com

* Serious marketing books for serious marketers http://www.RealMarketingBooks.com

———————————————————

The System
Education for Internet Entrepreneurs
14 North Road
Tivoli, NY 12583

As you may have heard, content is king when it comes to any information business.  I run a few sites where users generate content for them - it’s truly a win-win situation.  I win, because I have my users generating content for me, all without me needing to pay for the content.  My users win because they are getting something in return by putting content on my sites and using my sites.

This may sound strange at first, but let’s take a look at few example sites.  Back in Sept, 2007 my wife started a coupon exchange site for moms and coupon clippers to share unused coupons.  Guess what, it’s a totally hands-off site, and the site is growing on a daily basis (so is the ad revenue made from the site).  We are seeing more content (coupons) being added to the site, and more user participation.  This is a very typical user generated content website.

Another example is a used textbooks exchange website that I started back in 2003, where users come in and list their used textbooks they wish to sell/exchange with other users.  Again, another win-win situation where I get user generate content (book listings), and my users get benefits from using the site.

Movie & Film Review blog that was started a year ago has grown tremendously, now with over 500 movie reviews written and over 600 RSS subscribers.  A perfect example of a user generate content website where users come in and fill up the site with tons of content.

These sites exemplify what John Reese’s “Owning more of the web” principal that he talked about in his pre-sell video for Traffic Secrets 2.  Speak of which, it’s a must have for any business owners, online, or offline.  More content you can put out there for your business/website, more traffic you will get - period.

What other sites may you know that also deploy this model?  Here is a list of user generated content websites that are just making a killing with their sevices:

Google’s Blogger
Think about this one.  Google offer a free blogging platform for users to come and put content on Google’s blog network and allow users to display Google Adsense ads on their blogs - Genius!

Craigslist.org
Need I say more?  Just look at how many ad listings they have!  Many times, ad listings from Craigslist gets first page ranking for certain keyword phrases in Google.  Even if Google disappears tomorrow, they will still have a massive amount of traffic going to their site because of the type-in traffic alone.

Social Networking Sites
Sites like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, etc., all take advantage of user generated content.

Online Forums
Way too many to list here, but take a look at big-boards.com for a comprehensive list of top internet forums on various topics imaginable.

Social Media Sites
Digg is a perfect example of a user generated news content site, and allows users to vote up/down on the content being submitted.

The list goes on and on, but you can see where this is going.  All of aforementioned sites all have one thing in common - they provide a service, a platform for users to submit content (blog post, forum post, news, ad, etc.).  So start to think about what service you can provide to your local community - this can be an excellent way to break into a user-generated content website.  Also, don’t forget to pick up a copy of John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2 course if you can afford $400, which tells you everything about getting traffic to your new or existing sites.

Learn the fundamentals, and take massive action.  A huge mindset that I see many people struggle with is not being able to move forward due to over-analysis.

In my next post I want to talk about how to spot opportunities to create a  user generated content website to fulfill the need of a certain type of user group (like my wife’s coupon exchange site).  Be sure you subscribe to my blog by putting in your name & email beneath my wedding picture

If you belong to another marketer’s email list, I’m sure you have been sent John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0’s free video.

My first internet marketing course was in fact John’s Traffic Secrets (the very first version), and everyone I talked to said that I was lucky to have it as my first course because it guided me in the right direction in starting my own internet business.

Four years later, John Reese’s coming out with his Traffic Secrets course version 2.0 (available on July 15, 2008) and I suspect it is going to be a big hitter in the internet marketing community. Since I am an owner of the original course, I will be able to purchase it at $295 instead of the $397 price tag. Even at $397 it is still a steal because the original course was priced at $997 and I suspect the 2.0 version is going to be a much more comprehensive guide (not just about traffic) than the original course.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you take a look at his free video where he talked about “Results Detection.”

To me, that’s nothing more than a fancy word for market research or competition analysis. What you are doing with “Results Detection” is essentially looking at what other people have already done with their online business, and copy the same strategies or techniques (hey, why re-invent the wheel, right?) for getting more traffic online.

He gave 10 places on the internet where you can perform “Results Detection”:

Tip 1. Use Google to reverse engineer how the top 10 web sites obtain their ranking. This is a very common SEO reverse engineer tactic.

Tip 2. Use Download.com to see what software in your market is downloading the most, and check out the software’s features to see what your customers may want.

Tip 3. Digg.com - Getting on the homepage of Digg can bring your a massive surge of traffic to your site. Don’t try to game Digg! Look at how the “news” got to the first page of Digg, what kind of stories they are, why was the story voted the most, and figure out how you can release as story that will bring similar response.

Tip 4. Use social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and look at your friends who have tons of friends, and look at their profiles to figure out why some of your friends have tons of friends. What do they do with their profile to attract so many friends, and so the same.

Tip 5. Look at Google Adwords advertisers, and look at your competitor’s ads. Observe the ad copies they are using, and take note of the language they are using. If your competitor is using the same ad copy for a long period of time, most likely it’s working for them, so why not use similar ad copy? Another way to learn how to write good ad copy is by looking at Adwords ads for expensive keywords such as insurance, and study the ad copy (title, body, URL, call to action, etc.) because insurance keywords are really expensive and these companies better know what they are doing (although you can argue that these big companies also have deep pockets, so they may not care about conversion).

Tip 6. Use eBay.com. eBay itself provides valuable tools and statistics for seller to figure out what sells really well, what keywords eBay buyers use (similar to keyword research tool for the search engines). So knowing that data, you can go after a demanding market (check out eBay Pulse).

Tip 7. Use press releases. Look at PRWeb.com and see how others are putting out their PR’s. Study how they structure their press release. Look at how many other media picked up that press release, and copy their success.

Tip 8. Use Technorati to figure out the most popular blogs (with most incoming links) and what type of posts are generating incoming links. You would then want to write posts that make your readers want to link to you or bookmark your blog/post.

Tip 9. Use a site like Compete.com to get competitive data analysis and figure out where your competitors are getting their traffic from.

Tip 10. Look at CJ.com and look at how your competitors are designing their ad creative, and what kind of EPC they are getting for each type of creative.

There tips given in the free video, while very valuable in my opinion, are going to require specific knowledge
in how to use each of the 10 resources given. For example, if you are new to eBay, would you know where to look for competitive data? If you are new to Technorati, would you know what to look for? I certainly hope John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0 course will go further into each of these resources.

Stay tuned. My review of the Free Video Part II is coming…

I thought I would go ahead and post the reply to a comment I received in my previous post about “The Low Hanging Fruit” which may help some of you get over the keyword research hurdle.

Sorry I should have clarified.  The keyword research bit is to find keywords that you can easily rank high for in Google, not for PPC purpose (although you can, and it won’t hurt).

Here is what I do for keyword research.  I look around the house, or think of a topic in my mind, then I type that word in Wordtracker tool.

Then I go down the list of keywords that it came up with and click on the rightmost icon which will pop up a competition/Google trend estimate for that keyword.  You can use the < 30,000 competition and > 100 searches/day guideline it gives you as a starting point.

So, if you want to follow along, I’m looking around right now and I see computer speakers in front of me.  I type “computer speakers” in the keyword research tool, and it came back with this list (partial):

1,328 searches (top 100 only)
Searches    Keyword    G
1,328    total searches
418    computer speakers
73    wireless computer speakers
70    best computer speakers
43    bose computer speakers
31    speaker computer
20    computer speaker reviews
18    computer speaker
17    klipsch computer speakers
15    logitech computer speakers

Start going down the list and click on the icon in the “G” colulmn.  You will see that “computer speakers” gets searched over 3,000 times a day, but it also has over 3,000,000 webpages that are targeting that keyword!  So it’s very competitive.

Let’s try another one.  How about “wireless computer speakers”  Nice!  This is a good “low hanging fruit” keyword with over 130 searches per day, and 17,000 webpage results.

The next keyword is also good, “best computer speakers”

I would actually like someone to actually go out and register a domain for those keywords, and either monetize it with Google Adsense, Amazon, or eBay auctions, and see how it goes.

More to come later…

I want to introduce you to a publishing business model that will generate passive income for you for years to come.

I call it the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ system. It is quite simple, and here is what you do (keep in mind that you will need to make an investment to get a domain and hosting):

1. Use Wordtracker’s free keyword tool to find a long tail keyword. A long tail keyword, in my standard, is a keyword that gets searched in Google at least 10 to 20 times per day (300 - 600 searches a month), and has a less than 5,000 results when using the allintitle: search in Google

The tool is located at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/gtrends

2. Register a domain based on that keyword and get it hosted. I use WholesalerDomains.com because it’s a bit cheaper than Godaddy.

3. Once domain and hosting is set up, write a piece of article (around 300 - 500 words in length) for that keyword.

4. Find a way to monetize the traffic. If you are lazy, then Google Adsense will do. If you are ambitious, you can create an information product based on that keyword, or find affiliate programs that fit the traffic.

5. Submit that article to article directory sites, like ezinearticles.com, aritclecity.com, etc.

6. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the passive income.

7. Repeat steps 1 - 6 for different keywords.

When you have mastered the “low hanging fruit” system, you should be able to pick a “low hanging fruit” everyday, and build yourself a sizable passive income.

Later on I will show you how to pick “high hanging fruits” where it does take a little bit of time to get it, but once you got it, well, it’s extra sweet!

Got an email today from HomeClick.com’s affiliate program announcing that they are leaving CJ to another affiliate program management:

Dear Homeclick.com Affiliates –

We would like to inform you that a decision has been made and HDPI has decided to move the Homeclick.com affiliate program from Commission Junction to Performics.
All of your Homeclick.com links will no longer be active, and no commissions will be paid on any clicks after June 6th, 2008.

…

Well, we are all too familiar with the recent announcement of eBay leaving CJ and moving to its own affiliate platform (Good for them!).

When I got that email from eBay, I was devastated! I have so many web properties out there I don’t even know where to begin to look for those links! Let alone the web properties, what about those free PDF reports that I have written that are just floating out there? How the heck would I be able to update those links?

Luckily I thought ahead and used URL forwarding AND luckily I didn’t use TinyURL.com! In fact, I got a TinyURL clone script written so that I have full control of going into the database and chang the destination URL for the shortened URLs I made in the past.

So, webmasters, affiliate marketers listen up, DO NOT rely on TinyURL or any other URL shortening/direction service out there. Have your own solution, just like eBay is doing its own in-house affiliate management.

Here is a good ????????TinyURL clone script that’s free-of-charge. Enjoy!

Yeah, you’ve heard the saying, “It’s not about the money.”

Well, that would depend on what context you are using it in.

If you are suddenly broke or if your objective is to make as much money as you can, then yeah, it’s all about money because that’s what you are after.

But after a while people realize that they are simply trading their time for money. They realized that in order to make money, you have to spend time to make money.

That’s why sometimes it is important to remind ourselves what we are truly after. Is it the new car that you’ve always wanted, more time with your spouse or family, the new house that you dream of, the respect and fame that money will bring for you (and all the trouble that follows)?

Make no mistake - money is a common denominator, just like time.

Money is time, and time is money. Both can be traded (people do everyday, trading their time for money), both can be leveraged (investors leverage money and time for more money and time for themselves), both can be earned (sort of) and lost.

So, having that said, how can one make more money or time for himself?

Simple, you need leverage. You need a way to generate passive income, not earned income where you trade time for money.

You need a profitable procedure that can be performed by people other than yourself. And there are only two type of activities that I know of that can produce such desirable outcome - business and investments.

Many people confuse self-employment with being in business. If you find yourself trading time for money in your business, then you are most likely self-employed. You’ve just bought yourself a job.

Alternatively, you can be in the business of investing, where your time and money is highly leveraged. The simplest, least risky investment (and thus lowest return on your money) is putting your money in a CD or a savings account, where you allow the bank to leverage your money to make more money.

It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Because leverage goes in opposite proportion with return. The more you leverage your time and money, less return is expected (just like saying high risk yields high return), so it’s a game of constant improvement of your business process.

So, rather than debating whether it is or isn’t about the money, it truly is all about keeping the money, and making more with it.

—
So think about your online business - do you have a profitable business model, a profitable and sustainable business process, one that can you out of the equation and replace it with someone else? Is the business model expandable? If you place two of you in your business, will the profit double?

Think about those questions for a moment and truly evaluate all the aspects of your online business… or perhaps you are still self-employed?

Instilling a successful mindset in the beginning is the first step to your financial and personal success.

If you are not into investing in domains, you should definitely check it out right now because, like the real estate market, it’s a buyer’s market.

Here is an interesting LLLL.com for sale, QBAY.COM, cousin to EBAY.COM (j/k :))

It’s listed on, you’ve guessed it, ebay!

QBAY.COM auction link

I’m one of the bidders in the auction, and so far the highest bid is $7008.88, which hasn’t met the reserve.

I’m thinking of developing a site on it that compliments eBay.com, perhaps a site with list of the most bizarre auctions, a list high-ticket items, a list of items with most bids (most active auction), etc.

Once you get that site/script developed, you can then flip it to another domain/website investor or end-user.

What would you use the domain for if you were to own QBAY.COM, and how much would you buy that domain for?

I woke up early this morning @ 6:30am (OK, some of you probably think it’s late) to watch a 4-letter domain being auctioned off on eBay. The domain is boso.com and you can see how much it got sold for here.

Yeah, I came in a close 2nd high bid of $4,250. I thought for sure I got it with only a few seconds left, but another domain investor snatched it right out of my hands for $5,100.

So, what’s boso.com all about and what makes that domain so valuable?

If you are into domain investing, you will know that 4-letter .com’s are in high demand, especially premium 4-letter .com’s that are pronounceable or brandable.

I remember just 2 years ago I had a list of over 14,000 4-letter .com’s that are still available to register, but today they are all taken.

Take, for example, parse.com that is being auctioned off right now. I put a bid of $10,000 and that’s not even meeting the seller’s reserve.

So, what makes parse.com so valuable (I think it will go well into 5-figures)? Well, it’s both a dictionary word and brandable like the seller said.

In my opinion and from past experience, eBay isn’t the best place to sell a premium website or domain. It is, however, a great place to pick up deals.

So, knowing that, you should also look into purchasing some 4-letter .com’s from eBay and flip them in a domain forum (dnforum.com is a good one) or webmaster/IM forums such as sitepoint.com/marketplace, or you can just buy and hold and wait for the value of your domain to skyrocket.

I frequent sitepoint’s marketplace (http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace) to look for good “deals” to buy. Recently I came across someone selling a PR4 domain here.

At the time of this writing the bid on that domain is $40, and you have to think that this is really too good to be true. So I went to my favorite PR checker tool here and it came back saying that it may be a fake PR.

Well, it probably is. Whoever owned the domain did a 301 redirect to http://blogoforum.com/ for a while just long enough for Google to give it the same PR as blogoforum.com, and then takes off the 301 redirect and parked it.

I raised this concern in the sales thread and got my comment deleted.

So the moral of the story is, if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is (not all the time), and you should do your due diligence to make sure you get what you paid for.